Senate panel rejects anti-pollution bill

Critics charge bill would roll back Clean Air Act

By

JennyRobertson

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- After weeks of deadlock on the proposed Clear Skies Act, a Senate committee failed by one vote Wednesday to move the contentious bill to the Senate floor, though some members predicted it may be taken up again later in the legislative session.

With Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R.I., providing the swing vote, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had a 9-9 stalemate on Senate bill 131, essentially tabling the legislation. Ten Republicans, seven Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords serve on the committee.

In a speech in Columbus, Ohio, on energy and environmental issues, President Bush urged Congress to pass the Clear Skies bill and a separate energy policy bill that has languished for nearly four years.

Bush said Congress should open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration and development. And he said it is now time to build more nuclear power plants in the United States.

Once again, the White House rejected the suggestion that the government tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that holds nearly 700 million barrels of crude oil to lower gasoline prices. The government is adding 7 million barrels of crude to the emergency stockpile this month.

The Bush administration has praised the Clear Skies bill as a balance between environmental protection and business concerns, but critics have charged that the legislation would roll back environmental protections and parts of the landmark Clean Air Act. The bill's market-based approach would have allowed power companies to buy and sell pollution credits.

The legislation would have required coal-burning power plants to add technology that would reduce emissions, a measure that could have affected about half the nation's electric producers. The bill would have given $650 million in incentives to companies that replaced older systems with clean coal technology.

Clear Skies also would have limited emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury by 70 percent, according to the Bush administration. Bush's representatives say the move would cost 1,365 power plants a cumulative $52 billion in pollution controls.

Democrats said the bill would weaken enforcement of current environmental laws. Specifically, they criticized the bill for failing to cap carbon emissions, though they indicated they were willing to compromise on that point to pass a bill.

But committee chairman Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said the bill would have been more stringent than current laws and could have saved 14,000 lives.

"This bill has been killed by the environmental extremists who care more about continuing the litigation-friendly status quo and making a political statement on CO2 than they do about reducing air pollution," Inhofe said.

Democrats said they have been frustrated by lack of sufficient information from the Environmental Protection Agency on possible effects of Clear Skies bill.

Traditionally, the EPA has had a reputation for giving unbiased, timely opinions, said Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del, but he complained that "For the last three or four years, they've been constrained from doing that ... That's got to stop."

But committee chairman Inhofe pointed to 10,000 pages of documents laid out on table in front of him.

"This information provides extensive detail about the impacts on the nation as a whole, regions and individual states," he said. "Claims that we have insufficient information to make an informed decision simply don't have credibility."

Republican staff members on the committee had stated earlier that they hoped the bill would see full Senate action by April. When President Bush nominated Stephen Johnson last Friday to head the EPA, he said Johnson's first task would be to ensure passage of the Clear Skies proposal.

But the Senate environment committee had delayed forward movement on the bill several times due to quarrels among its members. Inhofe had previously identified Chafee and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., as possible swing votes.

Baucus and several other committee members said they felt work was still possible on Clear Skies, especially after the committee finished the transportation bill.

"I still think we can do it," Baucus said. "There are other months left in the year; it's only March. ... Some things have to be torn apart before they can be put together again."

But Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and other Republicans expressed doubt about the bill's future chances.

"I don't know whether we have the energy to take this up one more time," she said.

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